In a seemingly organized smear campaign, right-wing trolls are claiming Kehinde Wiley’s past work is racially insensitive to white people.​

As a response to the unveiling of former President Barack Obama’s official portrait, pro-Trump trolls launched a smear campaign against artist Kehinde Wiley, claiming a painting of his symbolizes an attack against white people and that the artist “seems racist.”

On Twitter[1] and online message boards like the “politically correct” threads on 4chan[2], 8chan[3], and The_Donald subreddit[4] on Reddit, pro-Trump trolls[5] are smearing[6] Wiley by claiming his rendition[7]of[8]Judith beheading Holofernes, a modern twist on a classical theme including works[9] by Caravaggio, Rembrandt, Rubens, and others, is “a ‘queen’ cutting off the head of a young white child.” Commenters on the message boards and Twitter have said Wiley “seems racist” and accused the artist of being “the definition[10] of racism.”

Judith Beheading Holoefernes / Caravaggio

Judith with the head of Holofernes / Peter Paul Rubens

Judith and Holofernes / Kehinde Wiley

Wiley’s painting was part of a series of portraits[11] of women he entitled An Economy of Grace. The artist is known[12] for remixing "classical European art with black urban youth." As Upworthy’s Parker Molloy documented, the smearing seems “clearly pretty coordinated” and the manufactured outrage[13] echoes other stunts pro-Trump trolls have pulled to garner mainstream media attention and shape narratives, like suing[14] over all-women screenings of Wonder Woman, or disrupting[15] a Shakespeare play over its depiction of the murder of Julius Caesar.